Present day telecommunications networks generally include one or more local end offices for providing service (i.e., dial tone) to subscribers. Depending on their geographic proximity, a calling and called parties may receive dial tone from the same local End Office switch. Thus, the same local End Office switch will handles the call between the calling and called parties. Often, the calling and called parties lie in different Local Telephone Access Areas (LATAs) and are served by different local End Office switches. Under such circumstances, a call initiated by a calling party passes from an originating local End Office switch to an Inter-Exchange Carrier (IXC), such as AT&T. The IXC routes the call from the originating local End Office switch through one or more toll switches to a terminating local End Office switch serving the called party.
Residential and small business customers typically receive both local (intraLATA) and IXC service via their serving local End Office switch. To the extent that calls made by such customers are inter-exchange calls, the originating local End Office switch passes the call to an IXC as described. For customers, such as businesses, schools and governmental agencies, that have a large inter-exchange call volume, it is often more economical to have a direct link to an IXC, thereby bypassing the local End Office switch. Customers that are directly connected to an IXC are often referred to as "nodal" customers since they represent nodes within the IXC network. Customer-requested features (i.e., the manner in which particular customer calls are processed) are dictated by the type of trunk on which the calls are carried to the IXC network. A separate trunk typically connects such nodal customers to their local End Office Switch for local calls.
Depending upon the capability of the IXC, nodal customers can receive certain inter-exchange call processing for calls handled by the IXC carrier. For example, a nodal customer can receive, via the IXC, certain service indicators, such as an internal index (call count) recording the number of calls originated by, or which terminate at, the customer premises, especially in terms of a particular service utilized by the customer. Further, an IXC may afford a nodal customers the ability to employ a private number plan that utilizes numbers different from conventional telephone numbers per the North American Numbering Plan. Additionally, many IXCs provide nodal customers certain inter-exchange call processing in connection with terminating calls, such as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS), whereby the customer receives the digits of the called number.
Segregating a nodal customer's local and inter-exchange calls incurs several short comings. For example, while nodal customers gain certain benefits by virtue of their direct connection to an IXC, certain inefficiencies result from having individual trunks associated with separate customers. Further, many nodal customers can not obtain the same type of inter-exchange processing, let alone any inter-exchange processing, for local calls from their local End Office switch that they get from the IXC for inter-exchange calls. To the extent that a nodal customer can get any inter-exchange processing for local calls from their serving local End Office switch, the processing is often different from, and is not coordinated with, the inter-exchange processing obtained from the IXC carrier. In particular, billing for inter-exchange call processing (to the extent such processing is provided by the serving local End Office) is usually different from that provided by the IXC.
Thus, there is a need for an improved technique for providing inter-exchange processing for local and inter-exchange calls.